Chromatisms - Average, Based on 3 Critics

AllMusic - 70Based on rating 7/10

70

Seattle soft psych-rockers the Soft Hills blended the rural with the spectral on their 2012 album The Bird Is Coming Down to Earth. That album's magnanimous blend of heavy guitar tones, spaced-out production, and gentle vocal harmonies found itself in the strange waters somewhere between a modern indie folk sound and a throwback to classic rock's FM radio freakouts. With third album Chromatisms, the band digs deeper into the sound it began on the album prior, turning more toward the spacy than the folky on these ten songs.

The Soft Hills are a legitimate, bona fide psychedelic band. Yes, musical cousins like My Morning Jacket and Fleet Foxes have at the very least explored the imagery of Native American spiritualism. But for evidence of to just what extent singer/guitarist Garrett Hobba’s band embrace it, you need look no further than the peyote trip video for “Phoenix” from their 2012 album The Bird Is Coming Down to Earth.

Remember being 15? Remember thinking that The Dark Side Of The Moon was the best album ever made, Led Zeppelin was the best rock ‘n’ roll band in history, and Oasis was the only band that really got you, deep down in your heart? The Soft Hills sure do. On their latest release, Chromatisms, the band reveal themselves to be devout in the religion of the groove—pious slaves to the old order of guitar-bass-drums psychedelia, unable to escape the shoulders of the fabled Giants of Rock. Unfortunately, this is not an optimistic discovery.